Syracuse, N.Y. --With Syracuse basketball assistant coach/head coach designate Mike Hopkins accepting a job at the University of Washington, there is at least one position on the SU staff that needs filling.

The Orange needs a new assistant coach.

As we await word from Syracuse University about Hopkins and what his departure might mean for SU head coach Jim Boeheim, who had been contractually bound to retire after the 2017-18 season, there are names being floated about as potential replacements as a Boeheim assistant.

The job, as it stands before any Syracuse announcement about a potential extension for Boeheim or news of something different entirely, comes with a caveat: How much job security would that new assistant coach have? The position could be for a single year, if Boeheim does indeed leave after 2017-18.

The immediate names include:

Kip Wellman. SU's Director of Basketball Operations since 2013, Wellman is already familiar with the Orange system and could merely shift chairs from the DOBO spot to the assistant coach chair. He also worked at SU as a graduate assistant coach.

Eric Devendorf. SU's assistant strength and conditioning coach, Devendorf, too, is already in Syracuse. He's a former Syracuse player who has spent the past year close to the program. He's earned his degree from SU and the transition would be fairly seamless.

Ryan Blackwell. The former Syracuse forward now coaches basketball at Liverpool High School, where he has lifted that school's basketball profile. He coached Boeheim's Army last summer, coached for four years in Japan and works Time Warner (now Spectrum) games as a broadcaster for SU games.

Allen Griffin. The former SU guard has been a mainstay on the staff of Archie Miller, who has built an enviable program at A-10 power Dayton. But Miller has been rumored to be the next Indiana head coach and Griffin, as loyal as he is to SU, has a stable job now and could be moving with Miller to Indiana or another power program that promises equal stability.

The list, as skeletal as it is, would expand to include more names if SU decides to extend Boeheim's contract or if the school makes a different announcement about its head basketball coach. The university has yet to publicly comment about its coaching situation.